Digimon Survivors
by Lord Starfish
Summary: Two good friends stumble into the Digital World by accident, and team up with others in the same situation to find a way back to Earth. AU, original characters only.
1. The Gate to Another World

Author's note: I used to be a huge fan of the Digimon-franchise back when the first two series were airing on Norwegian TV back in the early 2000s, and about three or four years ago, I found myself wanting to check out the series again, and also see all the later series that never aired over here. And while I do still think all of them have held up reasonably well, (I'm probably in the minority in that I even enjoyed Digimon Frontier...) there are still a few aspects of them that I just didn't like, and so I've been wanting to write my own take on the story for quite a while, basically to show what my "ideal" Digimon-series would be like.

And after the latest series, Digimon Xros Wars: The Young Hunters Who Leapt Through Time, proved to be practically a mash-up of practically every single thing I don't like about the franchise as a whole, I finally decided to get started on it. This will be an original story with original characters, though the overall plot I've got in mind is largely similar to Digimon Adventure mixed with the slightly more serious tone of Tamers.

Note that I'm going off the Japanese version for names and terminology here, so "Evolution" instead of "Digivolution", and the evolutionary chain goes "Child - Adult - Perfect - Ultimate", not "Rookie - Champion - Ultimate - Mega". (Seriously, why did the dub rename the Perfect level "Ultimate" when there already WAS an Ultimate level in the original version? That just makes things needlessly confusing, don't you think?)

Anyway, this foreword is getting way too long, so I think I'll just shut up and start the actual story now.

* * *

**CHAPTER 1**

_The Gate to Another World_

"This is the place!" she said, pointing towards a nearby cave. They could hear strange noises from inside it, and an odd sort of glowing mist was flowing from it.

"…Really? You dragged me all the way out here when I was _trying_ to relax, just to look at some smoke-filled cave in the middle of nowhere?" Mamoru said.

"Of course! I mean, aren't you totally curious to find out what those noises are?" Kouko asked enthusiastically.

"Uh, no, actually I think I'd be perfectly happy not finding out what those noises are. Now if you'll excuse me, I think I'll go back home now," Mamoru said.

Kouko looked at him with a bemused expression, and said "Well alright then, guess I'll just go have an exciting adventure on my own. I was hoping you'd accompany me so that we may share in the joy of whatever may be in there, but if you're too much of a wuss, then fine, just go back home to your random TV-shows and video-games. See if I care," before she swung around in an overdramatic fashion and walked into the cave.

And there it was. The good old "Call him a coward"-card that Kouko always pulled whenever Mamoru was reluctant to come along on one of her random adventures. He had found himself thinking countless times that he really should try _actually _leaving once, rather than letting her win every single time… Yet somehow, whenever she brought it up, he would inevitably end up tagging along just to prove her wrong.

"Alright, fine then!" he shouted, and ran after her.

* * *

The cave was damp, had a smell unlike anything they'd ever felt before, and it didn't seem to be just their imagination that the mist was glowing either; Even after turning a corner which completely blocked the exit from view, they could still see the walls clearly, illuminated in a sickly green color. Occasionally, small flashes of light would pop up in the air.

"I'm really not so sure about this, Kouko… I mean, even by your usual standards, this place is weird," Mamoru said. "For all we know, this mist could be poisonous! Or some sort of unstable gas that could explode at any second!"

"If the mist was explosive, I'm pretty sure all those flashes of light we've been seeing would have ignited it ages ago. And as for it being poisonous, well, I don't feel particularly dead yet. Do you?" Kouko replied, though there was a slight hint of nervousness in her voice too.

"Yeah, and what's up with all these flashes of light anyway?" Mamoru said, as another one popped up right next to his ear. "And for that matter, is it just me or are they showing up more and more frequently?"

Kouko stopped moving. After a few seconds of hesitation, she said "Actually… Maybe you're right. This place is starting to creep me out too. Let's just go back."

"Wow. You finally see reason, for once. I'm impressed," Mamoru said, as they turned around to get out the way they came.

Just then, the entire cave was engulfed in a blinding light, and a piercing sound like shattering glass could be heard in the air. Once the light faded, the glowing mist had also disappeared. The both of them froze for a moment, before running as fast as they could towards the exit without saying another word.

Once outside the cave, they stopped running for a moment to catch their breath. Kouko looked down the mountainside towards the city, only there was one problem.

"M-Mamoru-kun! Please tell me I'm not seeing what I think I'm seeing…" she said, completely unable to conceal the panic in her voice.

"What, did the entire city mysteriously vanish or someth-" Mamoru started, before turning to look himself and promptly going silent as he saw that his completely non-serious suggestion was completely accurate.

The city was completely gone, as were the roads and any other signs of civilization. All they could see was a vast expanse of forests and plains, with a large lake at the place where the city center used to be, and a river running out towards the ocean lying in the horizon.

"Okay. I really ought to stop tempting fate," Mamoru said, also trying his best to sound calm.

Grabbing his hand, Kouko turned around and started running back into the cave again.

"Ow! Kouko, what are you doing?!" Mamoru shouted, trying to keep up with her.

"Well maybe if we go back into the cave that weird light-thing will happen again and take us back to the city!" Kouko yelled frantically as she continued running. Before long, they'd reached a dead end. Then, they heard a growl behind them. Turning around, a creature unlike anything they'd ever seen before was standing there, glaring at them.

The creature sort of looked like a wolf, except it was abnormally tall, long and skinny, its fur was red, and its legs were wrapped in belts.

The beast plunged straight at Mamoru, who instinctively leapt to the side. There wasn't much space in the cave though, so he found himself backed up against the wall immediately. The wolf prepared to plunge a second time, but then a small rock hit it in the head.

"Run!" Kouko said, as she picked up another rock and prepared to throw it.

The monster turned its attention towards Kouko and leapt at her. Kouko attempted to push it away, but it was much stronger than she was. It was just about to bite her throat when Mamoru grabbed onto its tail and pulled it backwards.

"I'm not leaving you alone with this thing!" Mamoru shouted, as the beast turned its head towards him. "Now let's get out of here!"

Kouko nodded and ran as fast as she could back out. Mamoru followed, but he noticed that the beast still seemed to be standing still. Had the noise disoriented it?

They made it out of the cave, just as they heard another growl from the creature, and turned to see it dashing at them again, much faster than either of them could hope to run. Just as all hope seemed lost, a steel blade suddenly came flying and hit the monster. Turning to where the blade came from, they saw a boy with long hair that was tied up behind his back, standing next to yet another creature neither of them could recognize, this one looking like a small fuzzy dinosaur walking on two legs, wearing samurai-armor.

"Are you two alright?!" the boy asked. Kouko and Mamoru just nodded their heads. "Seems like we were right to come here… Ryudamon, do you recognize that thing?" he continued.

"Fangmon. Adult level. A demon-beast Digimon," the dinosaur named Ryudamon said.

Mamoru was completely dumbfounded. Talking dinosaurs? Digimon? What was going on here?

The wolf, apparently named Fangmon, seemed to have lost interest in Mamoru and Kouko, and was now cautiously staring at the boy and Ryudamon.

"Can you defeat it as you are?" the boy asked.

"I doubt it. And even if I could, would you really want to take the risk?" Ryudamon answered.

"Right," the boy said, and pulled some sort of high-tech cellphone-like device out of his pocket, and raised it above his head. "Ryudamon, evolve!"

As he said these words, the device's monitor started glowing intensely, and a ray of light shot out towards Ryudamon, who was then also engulfed in a blinding glow. They heard a loud noise, like an explosion, and as the light faded, Ryudamon seemed to have transformed into a bigger, more feral-looking beast. It was also standing on four legs now.

Fangmon growled before charging at its opponent. Ryudamon quickly spun around and slung its tail at Fangmon, sending the wolf flying into the air. Fangmon landed on its feet, and was about to resume its attack, but before it could, Ryudamon had dashed over and pinned it to the ground with his front paw.

"Finish him," the boy said.

Ryudamon opened his mouth, and they were astonished to see that a large metal spike was coming up out of its throat, similar to the one that had flown at Fangmon earlier. The dinosaur spat the spike out, impaling Fangmon through the neck.

Kouko stared at the scene in front of her with a mix of horror and fascination. Mamoru had shut his eyes tightly.

"Mamoru-kun, it's over! You can open your eyes now," she said to him.

Mamoru reluctantly did so, though the sight of the impaled wolf-monster inside of him quickly caused him to look away.

"Brave as always, I see… Anyway, thank you for saving us," she said.

"Don't mention it. I wouldn't abandon a fellow lost soul in need," the boy said. "I'm Kiyoshi, by the way. Akio Kiyoshi."

"My name's Kouko Asami," Kouko said. "My fearless friend here is Mamoru Daichi,"

"Well forgive me for being a tiny bit squeamish after just having seen a monster impaled by a metal stick thicker than my own neck!" Mamoru snapped back at her. "Besides, considering all the freakiness that's happened in the past few minutes, I'm surprised you can be this calm!"

"I definitely understand what you mean," Kiyoshi said. "I was just as freaked out when I first got here. Don't worry though, you get used to it. Or, I suppose that might not be much of a consolation…" he continued, and scratched his head.

"Anyway, do you know where we are, or what just happened?" Kouko asked.

"I do, but this probably isn't the best place to discuss it," Kiyoshi said. "Follow me, and I'll explain it on the way."

* * *

The three of them were walking down the mountain path. Ryudamon was keeping his eyes peeled for any sign of movement. Kouko and Mamoru were both looking around. The landscape looked more or less the same as it did where they came from, only with the very noticeable absence of buildings, highways, streetlights or anything else man-made.

"So where are you taking us?" Mamoru asked.

"There's this cave at the bottom of the mountain. I've been taking up refuge there for the past few months, together with another comrade," Kiyoshi said. "She usually goes with me whenever I leave the cave, but she'd hurt her leg just the other day, and so we figured she'd probably be safer staying behind for the time being."

"Speaking of companions… So what exactly _is_ that Ryudamon-fellow, anyway?" Kouko asked, staring at the odd creature walking next to Kiyoshi.

"He's a Digimon," Kiyoshi said briefly. "They're the inhabitants of this world. Fangmon, the guy who attacked you earlier was a Digimon as well."

"They're both the same species? I find that hard to believe… Wait, what do you mean 'inhabitants of this world'? You mean this isn't Earth?!" Kouko said.

"Nope," Kiyoshi replied flatly.

"Okay, I did say I wanted to go on an adventure, but this might be a bit more than I bargained for…" Kouko said, trying her hardest to sound nonchalant. Mamoru remained silent.

"This is the Digital World. As far as I know, it's a parallel dimension of sorts. The geography and climate is largely similar to our own world, as you may have noticed, but there are no humans here aside from those like us, who stray into this place by accident. The Digimon rule this place, and let me tell you, you do _not _want to cross the paths of some of the more ferocious ones," Kiyoshi explained.

"And we're supposed to discern the friendly ones from the non-friendly ones… how exactly?" Kouko asked hesitantly.

"If it doesn't try to rip your throat out the moment it sees you, it's probably safe," he answered darkly.

* * *

They arrived at the cave, which was partially concealed by a large rock and some moss hanging from the entrance. Kiyoshi went in first.

"Oh, you're back… Did you find anything?" a female voice asked.

"I did, in fact! Come on in, you two," he said, and Kouko and Mamoru did so.

Kiyoshi's friend was a thin, bruised girl with long, scruffy brown hair and tattered clothes. From what they could see, she must have been stuck in this mysterious world for quite a while.

The girl's eyes widened. "Where did you…" she began.

"In a cave higher up in the mountains. Apparently an opening appeared there just a little over an hour ago. Pretty ironic, huh?" Kiyoshi said.

The girl's head dropped. "I see… Another missed chance, huh?"

"Well, look on the bright side; at least we won't be the only humans here anymore…" Kiyoshi began.

"Yeah, another pair of unfortunate souls accidentally stumbled into this madness. That makes it much better," she shot back spitefully.

"Uh…" Mamoru began.

"Yeah, sorry about that. My friend here isn't exactly the most optimistic girl around," Kiyoshi said.

"You wouldn't be as cheerful as you are either, if _you'd_ been stuck in another world for a year, most of which you spent completely alone!" she said.

"_Anyway_, let's save the arguments till later, okay? You haven't even given them a chance to introduce themselves," Kiyoshi said.

"Right. I'm Amaya Chie. Sorry for acting so rude just now, but…"

"We heard you. Honestly, given the situation I can't say I blame you," Mamoru said. "I'm Mamoru Daichi, and this is my hot-headed, short-sighted and reckless friend Kouko Asami."

"Thanks for that," Kouko said with an annoyed look.

"Just repaying the favor for your flattering introduction of me up in the mountains, my dear Kouko-san," he replied and put on the widest smile he could possibly muster.

"Fine, fine, well now that you've both had a go at making the only other person you know here look bad, how about we get back to what's going on?" Kiyoshi said.

"Yeah… So what was that thing you did up in the mountains anyway? You know, the whole 'turning your Digimon-friend into a 30-foot monster and saving our lives'-business?" Kouko asked.

Ryudamon spoke up. "It's called evolution. Basically, Kiyoshi's Digivice…" Kiyoshi held up the high-tech cellphone-device. "…creates a sort of spiritual bond between us, giving me some of his energy which allows me to transform. It's a useful technique, but also one we're careful about not using unless it's really necessary, because it puts a huge strain on the both of us."

"The first time it happened, both of us fell unconscious after a few minutes. Good thing Chie-san was there to get us out of sight, otherwise we might have been eaten or something," Kiyoshi continued.

"And how did you come across this… Digivice?" Mamoru asked.

"Neither of us really knows what happened. We were attacked by a powerful Digimon once, Ryudamon was heavily injured, I tried to fight off the monster to protect him, and next thing I knew, the Digivice was just floating there before my eyes, and somehow, I just _knew_ what it was and how to use it," Kiyoshi said.

"Sounds awfully convenient…" Mamoru said.

"Trust me, it's about the only thing in this place that is," Chie commented.

"So is it possible that any of us could get one as well?" Kouko asked.

"Probably, I mean, if I could team up with a Digimon and get a Digivice from it, I would assume you guys could too," Kiyoshi said.

Kouko's face brightened up. "Alright! I'm going to find my own partner Digimon too!"

"You sure are enthusiastic about this… You know, most Digimon would probably sooner eat you than fight for you…" Kiyoshi said.

"Don't mind her, that's just how she is. Ever an optimist, always seeking adventures and excitement…" Mamoru said. "Heck, it's her thrill-seeking nature that got us here to begin with."

Kouko quickly lowered her head again as soon as he said that.

"…I'm sorry," she said.

"What?" Mamoru turned to look at her.

"You're right. It _is_ my fault that all this happened. Now we're stuck in some other world, with no food, water, tools, or anyone to help us outside this group."

"Well, I guess there isn't really anything we can _do_ about it now though… Whether we like it or not, it seems like we're stuck here," Mamoru said. "So, Kiyoshi… You don't know any way to get back home?"

"Well, portals to our world do open occasionally, but they're only open for a few brief moments, and so far we haven't been able to predict where they'll show up. That's mostly what we spend our days doing here. Either searching for food, or looking for signs of portals opening so that we might be able to find a pattern to it," Kiyoshi explained.

"And Chie-san has been stuck here for a whole year… I wonder how long it will take to find a way back?" Mamoru said, with his head down.

"Our families must be worried too..." Kouko said.

"Well, moping about it isn't gonna help!" Kiyoshi said. "If we're gonna get home, we'll just have to find a way ourselves! And look at the bright side; At least you're not all on your own, and me and Chie-san can share our experiences with you to make it easier for you to make it in this world."

Mamoru looked up again. "Yeah, I suppose that is one good thing in this misfortune…"

"So, I'm gonna go out searching again tomorrow. Feel free to join me," Kiyoshi said. "But for now, we should get some rest. It's been a long day."

* * *

Please review. Any feedback is appreciated, whether it be of the "**OH MY GOD THIS IS THE GREATEST FANFIC I'VE EVER READ IN MY LIFE!**"-kind or the "**OH MY GOD THIS IS SO PATHETIC THAT IT MAKES _MY IMMORTAL_ LOOK LIK****E**** SHAKESPEARE!**"-kind... Or okay, if it's the latter then I would at least like some elaboration as to _why_ it's so pathetic that it makes My Immortal look like Shakespeare, but...


	2. The Curious Rabbit

**CHAPTER 2**

_The Curious Rabbit_

One mostly sleepless night later, they were standing outside the cave. Kiyoshi had gotten up ahead of time and done some quick scouting around to see if there was any bloodthirsty monsters close by wanting to rip out their throats. After figuring that there didn't seem to be, he'd come back and asked who wanted to come along.

Kouko had said yes immediately. Mamoru had been somewhat reluctant, but Kouko used her good old "calling him a coward"-card again to change his mind. Chie had also decided to come along too, as her leg had more or less healed and it wasn't like she'd gain anything from staying in the cave all alone.

"So, rule #1 of exploring in the Digital World: Move quietly. You're allowed to speak, but don't be too loud. Rule #2: If you hear anything, stop moving and be quiet. Rule #3: If Rule #2 doesn't work and you get spotted by a hostile Digimon, run like hell and I'll try to fight it off," Kiyoshi said.

"Uh, yeah, we'd kind of planned on doing just that anyway," Mamoru said.

"Yeah, it's not like we're gonna run around shouting at the top of our lungs and charge headfirst at any noise we hear," Kouko said.

"I don't know, I could almost see you doing just that…" Mamoru said.

"…Save the bickering for later, okay?" Chie commented.

"So, since we're also running low on food to eat, I figured we'd head east. There's a lake there, where we might be able to catch some fish," Kiyoshi said.

"Well, you're the one who knows his way around in this place," Mamoru said. "I'm not gonna start questioning your plans for where to go…"

And with that, they were off. There was a straight path heading through the forest towards the lake, so the walk there was relatively simple.

"Ryudamon and I cleared out this path a while back," Kiyoshi said. "Or, to be precise, I had him evolve and tear up all the trees and dig up the ground before stepping it down myself. It took a few weeks though—As I mentioned, he can only maintain his evolved form for a few minutes at a time."

Kouko and Mamoru were both looking at the forest around them. It looked pretty much indistinguishable from a normal forest back on Earth. One certainly couldn't tell that they were in a different world just from the landscape alone.

Ryudamon, who was leading the group, suddenly tensed up. "I hear something!" he whispered to them.

Everyone stopped. They could indeed hear a rustling sound from a nearby bush.

"If it's small enough to hide in the bushes, it's probably not too dangerous," Ryudamon said. "Still, I should take a look."

He snuck up on the bush, and before he got a chance to do anything, another strange creature jumped out of it.

The creature sort of resembled a two-legged, four-eared rabbit wearing a pink dress. It was also wearing an amulet with a crescent moon on it. It most definitely did not seem to pose much of a threat, not even _before_ it stumbled on a rock and hit the ground face-first.

Kouko walked towards it.

"What are you doing?! It could be dangerous!" Mamoru protested.

"Really. Did you determine that from watching his truly terrifying display of power just now?" Kouko said.

"Hey. Should she really be doing that?" Chie muttered to Kiyoshi.

"It's alright," Ryudamon said. "That's Lunamon. Wouldn't hurt a fly unless it was in self-defense."

"Who… are you calling… 'He'?!" the Digimon said while trying to get back on its feet.

"She, then. Sorry, but being that I've only encountered three Digimon in my entire life it's not exactly easy for me to determine what gender they are..." Kouko said.

Upon hearing this, Lunamon suddenly sprung to her feet. "Then... You're human?!" she said, turning to look at them with a wide-eyed expression.

"Well, yeah..." Kouko said, before Lunamon rudely interrupted her.

"Oh my, I've never seen a real human before! Oh, I've always wanted to know what they're like... Mind telling me about yourself?" Lunamon said.

"Uh... Okay..." Kouko said, feeling somewhat taken aback by Lunamon's curiousity.

Lunamon ended up following after them for quite a while after that, asking about pretty much every single aspect of human culture she could think of, only stopping whenever Ryudamon thought he heard something. After a while, they reached the lake where Kiyoshi handed them some rather shoddy-looking fishing-rods.

"Chie-san made these," Kiyoshi said.

"They're not all that durable though, so try to be careful so I won't have to make another set _too_ quickly," Chie said.

Mamoru sat down by the edge of the lake, and said "But wait, I thought this world was only populated by Digimon… What are we supposed to fish for? Sal_mon_?"

Kiyoshi gave him a weird look. Chie rolled her eyes before sitting down thirty meters away from him. Kouko was still being interrogated about human culture by Lunamon and was currently too busy trying to explain the concept of light-bulbs to notice the joke.

"Well Mamoru-san, I don't know of any Digimon named Salmon, but there are indeed fair amounts of fish Digimon in the waters. The problem is, it can be pretty hard for non-aquatic Digimon like myself to catch any of them," Ryudamon explained.

"Right…" Mamoru said before turning his attention towards the water.

"So, rule #1 of fishing: Stay quiet, or you might scare the fish away. Rule #2… Uh, actually that's about it," Kiyoshi said, before walking over to Mamoru and whispering into his ear "And for the record, that pun was terrible."

"Stay quiet? I can do that," Kouko said cheerfully, before sitting down next to Mamoru.

"But wait, you still haven't taught me how spoons work!" Lunamon protested, before getting shushed by everyone. She then sat down next to Kouko, moping.

* * *

About an hour passed mostly in silence. Occasionally they'd almost catch a fish but they all got away. Lunamon would try to ask some more questions every now and then but they always told her to be quiet before she even finished a single sentence. Then something suddenly started pulling on Mamoru's fishing rod. The pull was so strong that he almost fell into the water, hadn't it been for Kouko quickly grabbing him from behind and pulling him away from the water.

The fishing rod was about to snap clean in half, when they finally managed to pull whatever was biting out of the water. It was a Digimon that looked sort of like a white seal with purple markings and a red mane, and it also had claws.

"Hey, what's the big idea?!" it said, using its claws to cut the line. "Here I am, just swimming along, minding my own business, when suddenly I find a hook sticking through my mouth?!"

"Well, we were just trying to catch some fish to…" Mamoru said, before stopping himself upon realizing that maybe telling an aquatic Digimon that they were fishing for dinner might not be the best idea.

"To what? So you were planning to turn me into your dinner, huh?!" the Digimon said before jumping straight at Mamoru and biting him in the arm.

"Argh!" Mamoru exclaimed, as he tried to pull the creature off. Kiyoshi and Ryudamon ran over.

Ryudamon prepared to use the blade-spitting attack he'd used on Fangmon the day before, but Kiyoshi said "Wait! If you use that attack now, you might hit Mamoru-san!"

Ryudamon instead leapt up and headbutted the enemy Digimon, causing it to lose its hold on Mamoru's arm.

"Huh?! Oh, I get it, you wanna go first, do you?!" the Digimon said, "Well, that's fine by me! _Marching Fishes_!"

After that slightly puzzling last sentence, an entire school of fish suddenly flew out of the water and straight at Ryudamon.

The fish didn't seem to do any real damage to him though, as most of them just bounced harmlessly off his armor, and the rest of them he simply flicked aside with his claws. Even the few fish that DID hit him seemed to do no more than tickle him.

"...You're not particularly good at land-based combat, are you, Gomamon?" Ryudamon said to the other Digimon.

"Are you mocking me?!" the other Digimon, Gomamon, said, before leaping back into the water.

"Oh my, such incredible bravery…" Mamoru remarked sarcastically while rubbing his injured right arm.

Then Gomamon came flying right back up from the water, flying straight at Ryudamon with tremendous speed. Ryudamon jumped out of the way just in time, and dashed over to Gomamon, grabbing his legs and holding him down.

"Gh! Let go of me, you damn cheap shot!" he said as he struggled to break free from Ryudamon's grip.

"Only if you promise you won't attack us again once I do," Ryudamon said.

"You attacked me first!" Gomamon shot back.

"…Fine, we promise that we won't try to hurt you again, as long as you can promise the same thing," Ryudamon said.

"Deal… So, what kind of Digimon are these guys anyway?" Gomamon said, looking at the humans surrounding him.

"Oh, they're not Digimon, they're humans!" Lunamon said excitedly. "And let me tell you, they truly are fascinating creatures, like..."

"So wait... You're actually protecting a group of humans?" Gomamon asked, ignoring Lunamon, who had just started talking about the amazing human invention known as the refrigerator.

"I am," said Ryudamon. "Kiyoshi once saved my life, and we've been partners ever since. I help him gather food and fight off enemies; he helps me take on stronger enemies by giving me the power to evolve temporarily. It's a beneficial relationship for both of us."

"Evolve?! You mean... teaming up with humans has enabled you to evolve at will?" Gomamon asked.

"Well yeah, thanks to his Digivice. It's kind of a dangerous technique though, as it wears on both my and his energy incredibly fast."

"Very interesting..." Gomamon said, before walking over to Mamoru.

"Sorry about the bite, man. But you know, just suddenly getting dragged out of the water like that… What was I supposed to think, really?" he said.

Mamoru just looked at Gomamon with a confused expression as the Digimon extended his front paw.

"I'm Gomamon! What's your name?" he said.

"I'm Mamoru Daichi… Why do you ask?" Mamoru hesitantly replied, though he had a feeling he already knew the answer.

"Because I'm gonna be your partner Digimon, of course!" Gomamon said.

"…Sure. Just decide that on your own. Obviously I don't get a say in the matter," Mamoru muttered.

"Oh come on, you heard what Ryudamon said! It'd be beneficial to us both! You get a personal bodyguard, I get to become more powerful, what's there to lose?" Gomamon said.

"…Meaning you're only interested in doing this to become stronger yourself."

"Honestly, you really should take him up on his offer, Mamoru-san," Kiyoshi said. "True, he might not seem like the most trustworthy fellow ("I heard that!" Gomamon interjected), but chances are you'd still be safer with him than without."

"Yeah, I agree with Kiyoshi," Kouko said.

"Then why don't you take him?" Mamoru asked.

"She's already with Lunamon over there, right?" Gomamon pointed out.

"I am? News to me…" Kouko said and looked slightly hesitantly at the extremely talkative rabbit next to her, who, as soon as their eyes met, proceeded to ask what that thing on the end of her shoelaces was called.

"…I repeat what I just told Mamoru-san", Kiyoshi said flatly. "Anyway, since we've just promised to not use this lake as a fishing-hole anymore, let's just go see if we can find something edible in the forest somewhere."

* * *

They were walking through the forest, picking up anything that Kiyoshi and Chie said was edible. Meanwhile, Lunamon was still not done with her interrogation about human culture, and Kouko was getting quite fed up with talking about it.

"O God in Heaven, please forgive me! I shouldn't have been so quick to decide that I would have a partner Digimon! Please, forgive my arrogance and spare me from this torment!" she exclaimed overdramatically. To her extreme annoyance, Lunamon _somehow_ failed to get the point and continued talking.

"You know, I'm starting to warm up to the idea of being your partner…" Mamoru said to Gomamon. "At least you know how to keep your mouth shut."

"Yeah, I'm starting to get pretty tired of listening to that Digimon talking too…" Gomamon said.

"Hey, Kiyoshi, didn't you say something about not speaking too loudly because it might attract unwanted attention and stuff?" Mamoru asked.

"_I've given up trying to make her shut up,_" Kiyoshi responded, sounding, if anything, even more annoyed than Kouko was.

And so they just kept on collecting food while listening to Lunamon asking about every slightest detail of society that Kouko mentioned. In order to try and make her stop, Kouko had decided to start answering as briefly as possibly, hoping that Lunamon would eventually run out of things to ask about, but since she kept asking her to elaborate on everything, that had so far proven unsuccessful.

Suddenly Ryudamon tensed up. "Everybody, be quiet!" he said and looked up towards the sky.

A humanoid, winged creature was flying down towards them. Everyone tried to remain perfectly quiet and hope that it would fly on, but it had apparently already been listening to them for long enough to determine where they were, as the creature swiftly landed on a stick in a nearby tree, before jumping down and looking straight at them.

The creature had a humanoid shape, but was covered with feathers and had the head of a bird, as well as wings and talons. It was also carrying a pair of swords strapped to its waist, and it had a straw hat atop its head.

"Hmmm, four humans, and three child-level Digimon… Excellent!" it said and unsheathed its swords.

"…And this, my dear Lunamon, is why we kept telling you to be quiet," Mamoru said. Lunamon immediately ran behind Kouko.

"Buraimon. Adult-level. His physical strength is nothing to brag about, but his speed coupled with his swordplay makes him a fearsome enemy. I'll have to evolve," Ryudamon said.

"Right!" Kiyoshi said and raised his Digivice. "Ryudamon, evolve!"

Ryudamon evolved into the same form he'd been in when he defeated Fangmon, and stepped in front of the group.

"Oh, you evolved? Impressive, but that will not save you!" Buraimon said and flew towards Ryudamon.

Ryudamon opened his mouth and fired several iron blades towards Buraimon, who easily dodged most of them and blocked the rest with his swords. He swooped down towards Ryudamon, aiming for his neck. Ryudamon's armor was stronger than he expected though, so his swords were unable to penetrate it and inflict any real damage on him.

"_Boujinha_!" Ryudamon shouted, as his tail started glowing and he quickly spun around and attempted to hit Buraimon with it. Buraimon blocked it with his swords once again, and leapt back and landed on his feet.

He then jumped forward, beating his wings to accelerate while still remaining at ground level, and attempted to strike the gaps in Ryudamon's leg-armor. To everyone's shock, Ryudamon didn't move and took the attack. The damage to his legs caused his evolution to be canceled out.

"_Ryudamon!_" Kiyoshi shouted, and ran over to his fallen companion.

"Hmph. How disappointing. However, before I kill you, I would like to know…" Buraimon said to Ryudamon. "Why did you not attempt to dodge that attack? Surely you would have been able to."

"Because…" Ryudamon strained himself to say, "If I'd moved out of the way, it would have left my friends completely exposed…!"

"Your loyalty is admirable," Buraimon said. "Now die!"

He raised his sword and prepared to strike, but before he was able to carry out his attack, Kouko and Mamoru leaped at him and attacked him with a pair of large sticks they found lying around.

"Fools!" Buraimon said as he turned his attention towards the two of them.

But suddenly, before he could attack them… "_Tear Shot_!" A ball of water suddenly hit him from a third direction. Turning towards it, he saw Lunamon standing there.

"Lunamon, what are you doing?!" Kouko exclaimed.

"I won't let you kill them!" Lunamon said, sounding strangely serious.

"Hah! And I suppose you plan on stopping me?" Buraimon said mockingly. He then sheathed his swords again before saying "Very well then. Let's see what you've got!"

Lunamon jumped straight at him and attempted to scratch him. Buraimon showed no signs of even noticing the attacks. She then started spinning around rapidly, shouting "_Lop-Ear Ripple_!" and causing a vortex of bubbles to appear and fly towards Buraimon, who casually swept them aside with a single wave of his arm. He then walked over to her and knocked her aside with just as little effort.

Kouko ran over and picked her up in her arms.

"Why?!" she exclaimed. "Why would you go this far to protect us?"

"Because… You're my friends!" Lunamon answered.

Buraimon walked towards Kouko and Mamoru, and unsheathed his swords again. Kouko tightened her grip on Lunamon, and said "I won't let you kill her! I won't let you kill _any_ of my friends!"

Suddenly, a blinding light flashed between Kouko and Buraimon, blinding them both.

"Kiyoshi… Could it be…?!" Chie exclaimed.

"Seems like it… Kouko-san, take it!" Kiyoshi yelled.

Kouko stretched out her hand towards the light and grasped hold of it. As the light faded, she saw that it was a Digivice.

"Lunamon. Ready for round 2?" she asked.

"Of course I am!" Lunamon replied, and jumped out of her arms and stood up.

Kouko raised her Digivice into the sky. "Lunamon, evolve!" she shouted.

Another flash of light enveloped Lunamon, and as it faded, she'd grown several times bigger and slightly more humanoid. Her face was covered by a steel mask, and her chest was clad in a simple suit of armor. Some poles of sorts were sticking out from her back.

The newly evolved Lunamon jumped high into the air, as Buraimon looked up and beat his wings to follow her.

"_Tear Arrow_!" Lunamon shouted, as she pulled an arrow of ice from one of the poles on her back, and threw it at her opponent with astonishing speed. The arrow hit him in the arm, causing him to lose one of his swords. As Buraimon reached her altitude, he prepared to strike with his remaining sword, but Lunamon grabbed his arm before he got the chance, and threw him back down to the ground.

Kouko, Mamoru and the others stared on in awe. None of them would have expected that immature child to turn into such a formidable fighter.

Lunamon landed, as Buraimon got on his feet again and glared furiously at her.

"You will pay for this!" he said, as he picked up his other sword and flew straight at Lunamon, who crouched down under him and landed a solid kick to his chest, sending him skywards once again and making him lose his grip on both his sword.

She leapt into the sky high above him, before coming back down quickly and landing another rapid kick to him, sending him crashing down to the surface.

Buraimon once again struggled trying to get back on his feet, as Lunamon landed right in front of him and simply said "Leave us. Or I will have to kill you."

He seemed to finally accept that he'd met his match, and flew away as fast as his wounded wings would carry him.

Lunamon reverted to her childlike original form, and Kouko lost her balance and fell to her knees immediately.

"We did it…" Kouko said, sounding as though she could hardly believe it herself.

"Kouko, we won!" Lunamon cheered, running into Kouko's arms, cheerful despite being injured and worn out from the fight. The two embraced each other tightly.

"Hey, Mamoru… Promise me one thing, okay?" Gomamon said. "Once I evolve, let's _not _do that afterwards."

"Huh? Sure…" Mamoru said absent-mindedly.

After just sitting there holding each other for a good thirty seconds, Lunamon spoke up. "So anyway Kouko, what _is_…"

"_For the love of God, no more questions_!" Kouko immediately responded.

"Oh. Right… Sorry about that," Lunamon said.

* * *

Elsewhere…

"My Lord, I found a group of humans. Three Digimon were with them," Buraimon said.

"Most intriguing… So _why_ have you returned empty-handed?"

"At least two of them have already got their Digivices, and so they managed to evolve and fight back. I am most ashamed, but I lost," Buraimon explained.

"Hmmm… We'll have to keep a closer eye on these humans…" his lord said.


	3. Gomamon's Mistake

**CHAPTER 3**

_Gomamon's Mistake_

Several days passed with little happening. The group simply spent their days exploring the area, searching mainly for food but always keeping their eyes open for signs of portals opening as well. After the encounter with Buraimon, Lunamon had finally stopped asking questions every five seconds, and they all agreed that it was a change for the better. All things considered, they were doing pretty well. Only one member of the group was still obviously unhappy.

"C'mon Mamoru, when are you gonna give me a chance to fight and evolve like Lunamon and Ryudamon can?!" Gomamon complained as he and Mamoru were wandering through the forest with Kouko. They'd decided to split into two teams in order to cover more ground, with Kiyoshi and Kouko leading the groups since they were the only ones with Digivices.

"I am not going to go looking for trouble just so you can have a chance to evolve, Gomamon," Mamoru answered.

Gomamon quickly averted his eyes and put on an extremely obviously faked expression of innocence. "I wasn't saying that at all! That would just be dumb…" he said.

"Besides, neither me nor Kiyoshi actually know for sure what caused our Digivices to appear in the first place. Even if an enemy Digimon _does_ attack you, who's to say you'll even be able to evolve?" Kouko said.

Gomamon scowled. "Alright, whatever! So we're just gonna sit around and wait for it to happen, is that right?" he said rather loudly.

"More or less, yeah. And keep your voice down!" Mamoru said.

* * *

As they continued walking, Gomamon seemed dead-set on making as much noise as he possibly could. Mamoru and Kouko were both thinking to themselves that his intentions couldn't be more transparent if he'd been walking around carrying an enormous sign that said "PLEASE ATTACK ME".

"Okay, seriously, will you cut that out?! I may not know how this whole partnership-thing between humans and Digimon actually works, but SOMEHOW I'm getting the feeling that starting a fight on purpose is not the way to go," Mamoru said.

"Hmph! Wimp. I should have teamed up with that other kid instead. Perhaps she wouldn't complain this much," Gomamon barked back.

"Really? _You're_ accusing Mamoru-kun of complaining too much? I believe that is what we humans refer to as 'the pot calling the kettle black'," Kouko said. Lunamon nodded her head in agreement.

"Anyway, look over there!" Lunamon said and pointed to a large growth of edible mushrooms not too far from where they were standing.

"Great, that should last us for at least a day or two," Mamoru said. They picked as many of the mushrooms as they could carry, and started walking again.

"So, what are we going to do once we've carried all this stuff back to the cave? Just wait around for those other two to come back or something?" Gomamon asked.

"Well, I had been thinking of going out after them, but I'm starting to reconsider that plan…" Kouko said. "How about this; we'll go out to search for signs of portals opening as well, but only if you promise not to do anything to attract attention. And if you do, I'll have Lunamon evolve and squash you into a particularly annoying pancake."

They continued walking, with Gomamon at the very back of the group making a point of non-verbally expressing his irritation as openly as possible.

"Hey, think I should actually go through with that threat?" Kouko whispered to Mamoru.

"Tempting, but you really shouldn't. What if you do, and then the noise attracts another enemy? Let's just focus on getting back to the cave," Mamoru whispered back.

"Darn," Kouko muttered.

Lunamon suddenly tensed up. "I hear something!" she said.

Everyone stopped moving. Listening close, they could definitely hear _something_ heading their way. Mamoru and Kouko both cast suspicious looks at Gomamon.

"Hey, don't look at me! You've been pretty much forcing me to keep quiet for the past fifteen minutes!" he said.

"Well, whatever that is, I suggest we get out of here before it spots us!" Mamoru said, before running over to Gomamon, picking him up and then rushing off as fast as he could with the others.

* * *

Before long, they reached a large clearing, and were horrified to see that the creature they'd heard was standing right there. They were in plain sight. Kouko clenched her Digivice and prepared to use the evolution-command if the creature showed any sign of hostility.

The creature resembled a stegosaurus with spikes made of metal. Its forehead was protected by a layer of metal as well.

"Nobody move…" Lunamon said. "With some luck, he might leave us alone if we just stay still…"

Gomamon was struggling to break free from Mamoru's arms.

"No! You will not provoke him!" he said sternly. Gomamon responded by biting him in the arm, causing him to lose his grip on him.

"No!" Mamoru shouted, but Gomamon had clearly made up his mind. He charged straight for the enemy Digimon, who effortlessly kicked him aside before charging straight at them.

"That _idiot_! Lunamon, evolve!" Kouko shouted, as Lunamon transformed into her bigger form and attempted to catch the enemy Digimon by his head and push him back. However, he was far too strong and she was knocked back, flying straight towards Kouko, and instantly reverting to her regular form. Kouko caught Lunamon in her arms, and they leapt to the side as quickly as they could.

Mamoru ran back into the forest and climbed up a tree. He saw Gomamon getting to his feet on the ground beneath him, looking straight up at him. Mamoru glared back.

"Well, I hope you're happy! You do realize that it's entirely your fault we're in this mess, right?!" he shouted.

"Spare me the lectures! What's important now is, Lunamon just got beaten in the blink of an eye, and if you can't make me evolve right this instant, we're all done for!" he barked back.

"For the billionth time, none of us even know how we're supposed to accomplish that!"

"Well, Lunamon and that girl got theirs in the middle of a battle, and didn't that Kiyoshi-guy say it was the same for him? So I'm sure that if we're both determined to fight that thing off, we'll be able to do it!" Gomamon said, though Mamoru still wasn't entirely convinced.

Elsewhere, Kouko had also climbed into a tree a little into the forest, but the enemy Digimon was heading straight for her, tearing down the trees between them to get to her.

"Alright then!" Mamoru shouted. As much as he hated the idea of letting Gomamon have his way after having put them in this situation to begin with, he couldn't see any better way out of this situation. "If it's either working with you or getting ripped to pieces by that monster, then I suppose working with you is the better option!"

He leapt out of the tree. "Now let's take that monster down!"

"Yeah!" Gomamon said, and the two of them looked straight at each other, expecting another flash of light to appear between them and reveal their Digivice like what had happened with Kouko and Lunamon.

Nothing happened. Gomamon's eyes widened with fear, and Mamoru was struck by a mixture of horror and anger.

The enemy Digimon turned around, having noticed that Mamoru had jumped down on the ground and figured that he'd be a much easier target than Kouko was. Both of them quickly turned around and ran as fast as they could, but Gomamon fell behind immediately because of how short his legs were.

"Help!" he shouted. Mamoru slowed down, turned around, and saw that the enemy Digimon was quickly catching up.

_Oh, I'm going to regret this,_ he thought to himself before turning around and running back to pick up Gomamon. He made it there before the Digimon, and turned around once again and ran into the forest with the enemy mowing down the trees behind him.

* * *

"So what's the plan?!" Gomamon shouted.

"Get that thing as far away from Kouko and Lunamon as possible, and hope we run into Kiyoshi!" Mamoru said back. "And _you,_ be quiet!"

Mamoru kept running until his legs were so worn out he simply collapsed on the ground. Rolling over, he saw the monster still charging towards them. There were still a few trees separating them, but he knew that the creature would be able to tear them down in a matter of seconds. Thinking that this was surely the end, he closed his eyes tightly and prepared for the inevitable, when…

He heard a loud roar in front of him, followed by a crashing sound and a thud, and then he opened his eyes again to see Ryudamon's evolved form standing in front of him, with Kiyoshi and Chie both riding his back. The enemy Digimon was lying on its side, having apparently been knocked over by a charge attack from Ryudamon.

"Finish him off!" Kiyoshi said, as Ryudamon spat an iron blade from his mouth and impaled the enemy.

"We heard the sounds of a battle, and decided to go check it out… What happened? Are you guys alright?"

"Aside from feeling like my legs are about to fall off, I'm fine… Kouko and Lunamon were both hiding in a tree when I last saw them, and Lunamon was unconscious but I'm going to assume that they're both still alive too…" Mamoru said, making an effort to stand back up, pushing Gomamon aside. "As for what happened… This moron just decided to provoke that thing to attack us, just to create a situation where he might be able to evolve!"

"What?!" Kiyoshi and Chie both exclaimed together, looking straight at Gomamon.

"It's true. If it hadn't been for him, none of this would have happened," Mamoru said angrily.

"Look, I'm sorry, alright? I didn't think things would turn out this…" Gomamon started.

"Shut up! Yeah, of course you didn't think it would turn out like this! You just figured that getting us all into danger would somehow immediately lead to the two of us receiving a Digivice and that you'd be able to evolve and beat that thing effortlessly, didn't you?! Well look at where that just got us. If Kiyoshi and Chie-san hadn't heard us, we'd all be dead by now!"

"I…"

"No excuses! I've had enough," Mamoru said. "Now get lost!"

And turning his back to Gomamon, he could hear him running away without saying another word. Kiyoshi looked just as angry with Gomamon as Mamoru was, but Chie, strangely enough, watched him run away with an expression of pity.

* * *

Just a few moments after, Kouko came running towards them through the torn-down path that the enemy Digimon had made. Seeing that they were all in one piece, she let out a sigh of relief.

"Alright, where is that Gomamon?! I don't care what he has to say for himself, I'm gonna kill him!" she then exclaimed.

"Gone. Daichi-san here just drove him off," Chie said.

"He did? Well, good riddance! That freak almost got us…"

Kiyoshi interrupted her. "We know what happened, Kouko-san. Mamoru-san just told us."

"I'm not so sure about this…" Chie said. "He did seem genuinely sorry for what he'd done…"

"Yeah, well I never wanted that thing following me around in the first place, remember?! I only let him come along because Kiyoshi said he might be able to _protect_ me… Instead, he almost got me killed!" Mamoru spat back.

"Yeah, he had his chance and he wasted it. Good riddance, I say!" Kouko said.

"Anyway, let's get back to the cave," Kiyoshi said. "If we stay here for too long, we might risk getting attacked again, and I don't fancy another fight when we're all worn out."

* * *

Later that night, after Kiyoshi and Mamoru had both gone to sleep, Kouko had asked Chie if they could talk for a bit, and so they'd gone outside the cave.

"So why _did_ you think we should forgive him, anyway?" Kouko said.

"Like I said, he was obviously regretting what he'd done," she replied. "I don't think he'd have tried anything like that again, he'd learned his lesson."

"Yeah, but still, we could have died. Is that really the sort of thing that can just be forgiven with a simple apology?" Kouko said.

After a moment's silence, Chie said "Daichi-san forgave you."

"That was different," Mamoru said, walking out of the cave himself.

"Mamoru-kun, weren't you asleep?" Kouko asked.

"I'm still having trouble sleeping properly… You know, being trapped in another world, having had three near-death-experiences in the past week alone, and all that…" he said. "Anyway, Kouko didn't _know_ that going into that cave would cause all of this. Gomamon willingly, knowingly provoked an enemy that could easily rip us all apart."

"True, but…" Chie started.

"And again, I never even wanted to team up with him to begin with," Mamoru interrupted. "I mean, I can see why having a Digimon partner would be useful, but I don't think I could put up with such a hot-headed, short-sighted, reckless…" He suddenly stopped talking.

"Starting to understand what I was getting at?" Chie said.

"Again though, Kouko would never _intentionally_ get me into mortal danger!" Mamoru insisted.

"Wait, are you honestly comparing that guy with _me_ now?!" Kouko asked.

"Well he did just use the exact same words that he described you with back when we first met," Chie said flatly. "And you did pretty much jump at the chance of having a Digimon to fight for you, not unlike how Gomamon decided to stick to us once he heard that it could help him become stronger."

Neither of them could think of an answer to that. After a while, Mamoru just said "Well, if you're done comparing my best friend to that moron, I think I'm just gonna go back inside and try to get some sleep now!"

* * *

The day after, they were getting ready to head out again. Chie had said that she'd rather stay behind this time, and being that Mamoru and Kouko were both somewhat annoyed at her after their talk the night before, they were both perfectly fine with this.

"Are you sure you're not joining us?" Kiyoshi said. "I mean, it's not like you'll really be able to accomplish anything by sitting around in the cave all day…"

"I'm sure," she said.

"Well alright then… So why don't we all just go together in one group this time? I mean, just in case we get into another situation where just one of our Digimon won't be enough…" Kiyoshi said.

Kouko and Mamoru both agreed to this idea, and they walked off.

As soon as they were gone, Chie started walking down towards the lake where they'd met Gomamon. She'd wanted to wait until she was on her own, seeing how the others still all seemed to hold a grudge against the guy and would probably try to stop her.

She kept a close eye on her surroundings the whole way, and listened close for any sign of movement. After all, if she ran into any enemies, she'd have nobody to protect her. Thankfully, all those months she'd spent on her own had gotten her quite used to this, and she reached the lake with no trouble.

Once she was there, she tried throwing a few rocks into the water to see if she could get Gomamon's attention that way, but to no avail. She also tried looking for him, but the water was too murky for her to see very far.

She was starting to have some second thoughts about this. After all, there was no guarantee that he'd even still _be_ in this lake, and even if he was, what if he didn't want anything else to do with her group after what had happened?

Unable to think of anything else to do, she just sat down by the edge of the water, hoping that if he was there, he might come up eventually and spot her or something. A long time passed with nothing happening, until finally a familiar figure came up from the water, turning around on his back and floating aimlessly around while looking up at the sky.

"Gomamon!" Chie said to get his attention.

He looked over towards her. "Huh? You're that girl who was with Mamoru's group! What're you doing here?" he asked.

"I just wanted to talk…" she started.

"About what happened yesterday? Well, if you've come to criticize me some more, then you can just get lost! I got more than enough of that from your friends, thank you very much!" he snapped back.

"No… Actually I was hoping you'd be willing to try and make peace with them," she said.


	4. The Gotsumon Village

**CHAPTER 4**

_The Gotsumon Village_

Gomamon looked at her with a doubtful expression. "Make peace? Hate to tell ya, but Mamoru chased me off without even letting me say anything for myself. I doubt he'd be willing to accept my apology anyway…"

That was exactly the sort of response Chie was hoping for. "So you _do_ feel bad about what happened, then!"

"Well, yeah… Hard to _not _feel bad about almost leading the only friendly creatures I've met in years to their deaths, you know…" He started swimming towards the edge where Chie was sitting.

"Great. Perhaps I could help you with that?" Chie said back.

"That would be nice, but… How are you planning to do that?" Gomamon asked.

"…To be honest, I'm still working on that part," she said.

"And why do you even want to help me make it up to them anyway?"

"…It's complicated," she simply said. "Anyway, let's just focus on the problem at hand here…"

* * *

Mamoru, Kiyoshi and Kouko were walking along the mountain path leading up to the cave Kouko and Mamoru had first entered the Digital World through. Their destination lay beyond that point though, as Kiyoshi had suggested that they explore the area on the northern side of the mountain.

"There's a vast desert beyond there, but I've never dared to cross it in fear of getting lost," Kiyoshi said. "I figured that we might be able to see if there's anything there with Lunamon's help."

"My help?" Lunamon asked.

"Yeah, you could evolve and use that considerable jumping ability of yours to cover much more ground than any of us could hope to," Kiyoshi explained.

"I thought evolution should only be used as a last resort?" Kouko said skeptically.

"Oh, come on, we'll be standing at the foot of a desolate mountain at the entrance to a desert! If any hostile Digimon appear, we'll see them coming from miles away," Kiyoshi said.

"Well, I suppose it _could_ be fun to see what was out there…" Lunamon said.

They kept walking, and reached the bottom of the mountain where, like Kiyoshi said, they could see pretty far off in every direction and couldn't see any hostile creatures heading their way. Kouko said that she wanted to go along with Lunamon.

"After all, if she reverts before she makes it all the way back, it'd probably be faster if I carried her rather than letting her walk on her own," she said.

"Well yeah, but at the same time… Will _you_ even have enough energy left for that?" Mamoru asked.

She looked at him with an annoyed expression. "Gee, I totally did not consider that possibility. Why don't I just stay behind, leaving Lunamon _alone_ in the middle of the desert in that exact same situation if her evolution doesn't last?"

"Right, right, I didn't think of that..." Mamoru replied.

"Anyway…" She held her Digivice above her head. "Lunamon, evolve!"

Lunamon transformed into her bigger form, and bowed down to let Kouko climb on her shoulders.

"Let's go!" Lunamon said, and leapt off with incredible speed, leaving Mamoru, Kiyoshi and Ryudamon behind as they quickly became smaller and smaller in the distance.

"You know, I can't help but notice… That seems like one extremely uncomfortable way to travel," Mamoru said.

"Yeah…" Kiyoshi said. "Let's hope she doesn't fall off…"

* * *

Lunamon and Kouko were quickly leaping past the desert dunes, and Kouko had quickly reached the same conclusion that Mamoru had; This was indeed a really uncomfortable way to travel. She had to hold on for her life to avoid falling off, and the wind resistance made it almost impossible for her to open her eyes, not to mention it left her bare arms feeling very, very cold.

"Hey, what's that?" Lunamon said.

"_I don't know! It literally hurts to open my eyes at the moment!_" Kouko shouted.

"What? I didn't quite catch that," Lunamon said, and slowed down.

"…Thanks for that. You were moving just a _tiny _bit too fast for my liking…" Kouko said, rubbing her arms.

"Oh, sorry. Anyway, I think I see a village ahead," Lunamon said, and pointed forward.

"A village? You mean, Digimon have villages too?" Kouko said, surprised. She looked to where Lunamon was pointing, and she could indeed see something that looked like a village there.

"Well, yeah…" Lunamon replied as if that was the most obvious thing in the world.

"Huh, for some reason I never even considered that possibility… Let's go check it out," Kouko said. "But why don't _I_ do the walking this time around? No offense, but you don't exactly make the most comfortable transport in the world." She took out her Digivice again, and Lunamon's evolution was instantly undone. Lunamon hung her head down.

"Sorry…" she said.

"Oh, you don't need to apologize. I'm just not quite used to moving that fast," Kouko assured her. "Anyway, come on, I'll carry you the rest of the way."

Lunamon jumped into Kouko's arms and they walked off towards the village.

* * *

Once they got closer to the village, they saw that all the buildings were made of stone, and were hardly any taller than Kouko was. There was also a well in the middle of the village. There were nobody around, but they could see footprints in the sand, so clearly someone _had_ been there recently.

"Huh… Where is everyone?" Kouko asked.

"Probably hiding from us," Lunamon said. "Or to be more precise, from you."

"Oh, right… I suppose that makes sense. I mean, if I saw a creature twice as big as myself approaching, I'd probably hide too," Kouko said. "Do you think you could tell them that we're not gonna hurt them?"

"I could try…" Lunamon said and walked over to the nearest house and knocked on the door.

"Is anyone in there?" she asked cautiously. "Don't worry, we're not going to hurt you. It's perfectly safe," she continued.

No response. She tried again at another house, and another after that, but the result was the same every time.

Kouko was just starting to consider just giving up and going back, when finally one of the doors opened, and a Digimon slowly peeked out, before walking hesitantly towards her.

The Digimon, which looked like a child whose entire body was made of rocks, asked "What kind of Digimon… _are_ you?"

Before Kouko could answer, Lunamon ran up to the Digimon and said "I'm Lunamon, and this is my friend and partner Kouko-san! And she's not a Digimon, she's human!"

"Human?" the Digimon said with amazement in his voice. "I've heard about these creatures, but I never thought I'd actually meet one! Would you mind telling me about yourself?"

Kouko, still having bad memories from Lunamon's interrogation the first time they met, took a few steps back and said "Errr… Lunamon, do you think you could tell him yourself? In the meantime, maybe I should, uh, go and get the others or something!"

"Sure," Lunamon said with a smile. Kouko then ran off to get Mamoru and Kiyoshi.

* * *

Back at the entrance to the desert, Mamoru and Kiyoshi were starting to worry. It had been almost an hour since Kouko and Lunamon left, and they hadn't seen any sign of them since then.

Mamoru stood up. "I'm going to go look for them!" he said. "They've been gone for far too long. What if something terrible has happened to them?"

"I agree," Kiyoshi said. "Hopefully they just went a little too far in the desert and didn't make it back before Lunamon devolved, but we should still go take a look at least."

So they both started walking into the desert together with Ryudamon. There was a particularly tall dune about two kilometers away from them, and they decided to go to the top of it where they might have a better view of the desert. It took them about ten minutes to get there, during which neither of them said anything. They were both worried about what could have happened to their friends, and didn't even dare to talk about some of the possibilities.

Once they did reach the top, they could see a lone figure walking towards them in the distance.

"Could that be her?!" Mamoru asked.

"Maybe, but if so, where's Lunamon?" Kiyoshi said. "Should we take the risk of calling out to her?"

"I wouldn't do that, Kiyoshi," Ryudamon said. "It could be an enemy Digimon, and there's no guarantee that it's one I'd be able to handle. Let's just wait until it gets a little closer."

"Alright…" Kiyoshi said.

As the figure got closer, Mamoru was able to make out a bright, red T-shirt and Kouko's familiar short, blond hair. "It's her," he said, relieved. "But where's Lunamon?" He started running towards her.

Once he reached her, he could see that she was walking really slowly and was sweating a lot. "Kouko! What happened?!" he said.

"Oh… Mamoru-kun… Thank goodness… Word to the wise; Wandering through the desert for an hour without any water, when you're already worn out: _bad idea_," she said, breathing heavily.

"Where's Lunamon? Did you get attacked?!" he said.

"What? Oh, no, she's fine. We came across a Digimon village a little further out in the desert, and I left her there for the time being to avoid having to spend another six hours getting interrogated about how cakes are made," she hastily explained. "Though on second thought, walking back to you guys on foot really was not the smartest thing I could have done."

"Agreed," said Kiyoshi, who had just caught up to them, with a mixture of relief and annoyance in his voice. "Anyway, so how far off is this village?"

"…Far enough that I'm dreading the idea of walking all the way back," Kouko said.

"Well, there's no other choice, is there? Even if I did try to evolve Ryudamon and have him carry us the way Lunamon carried you the first time, I doubt he'd be able to make it even halfway there, and then we'd just be left with _three_ completely worn-out people rather than one," Kiyoshi said and started walking in the direction Kouko had come from. "But if you'd rather get back to the cave and get some rest, then that's perfectly understandable. We'll go get Lunamon."

"No, I'm coming with you," she said. "Lunamon should still have enough strength to carry us back afterwards, so it'd probably be easier for you, at least…" And so they started walking.

_Lunamon might have enough energy left… But I'm not sure if you do,_ Mamoru thought.

Another hour of walking through the intense heat with no water or shadows to be found, they finally reached the village, where they received a considerably warmer reception than Kouko and Lunamon had the first time around.

"Ah, Kouko! You're back!" Lunamon said and ran over to her happily.

"Yeah… I am… But listen… Do you think… We could get some water…?" Kouko said in a strained voice.

"Oh, of course!" one of the Digimon inhabiting the village said, and ran over to the well and pulled a large bowl made of stone filled with water out of it, which it then gave to Kouko.

Ryudamon looked around and said "I see… This is a Gotsumon village. I had heard that there were a few Digimon villages outside the forest, but I'd never actually gone to see any of them myself."

"Nor did you bother mentioning them to us…" Kiyoshi said. "I always thought all Digimon had to fend for themselves, and that civilized creatures like yourself were the exception to the rule."

"Well to be fair, if all Digimon had to live on their own, where would they even have learned to speak in the first place?" Mamoru said.

One of the Gotsumon villagers then walked over to Mamoru and said "Oh, nobody _taught_ us to speak. We already knew how to do that when we were born."

Upon hearing this, Mamoru, Kiyoshi and Kouko couldn't think of anything to say and just sat there with confused expressions.

Suddenly, one of the Gotsumon tensed up and said "You three! Hide!"

The other Gotsumon then looked up at the sky. Kouko and the others did the same. They could see a winged figure flying in their direction.

The Gotsumon who had told them to hide made them follow him into the largest building in the village, which was only just tall enough for them to fit inside, though they had to crawl through the door.

After a while, they could hear someone landing outside the village, and a familiar voice spoke up.

"I have received word that a group of humans have been spotted going in this direction. If any of you have seen any of these humans, speak up!" Buraimon said.

"Humans? Yeah, there were some here earlier… They traveled off towards the north well over an hour ago though, riding on a Lekismon's back. They're probably miles away by now," one of the Gotsumon said.

"Lekismon?" Mamoru whispered to his friends.

"Oh, that's the name of my evolved form," Lunamon whispered back.

"…I'm not even gonna bother asking how you know that," Mamoru whispered. "And really? Digimon's _names_ change when they evolve too? That's… needlessly confusing…"

"I see. If they come back, keep them here. My master wishes to see them," Buraimon said, before flying off once more.

After a few more minutes had passed, the Gotsumon told them they could come out again.

"What was that all about?" Kiyoshi asked.

"Buraimon… He's one of Lord Barbamon's servants. We hear he's been searching the lands for humans who stray into this world, and that none of the humans who have been taken to his castle have ever made it back," one of the Gotsumon explained.

"Lord Barbamon? And wait—None of the humans? You mean we aren't the only humans to have ended up in this world?!" Kouko asked.

"Of course you aren't," Ryudamon said. "Portals between the worlds can open anywhere, at any time. Surely it can't be that hard to believe that humans other than yourselves might have been caught up in one of them at some point?"

"As for Lord Barbamon…" a Gotsumon said. "He's a Demon Lord Digimon who resides in a temple far off in the north, and he's the ruler of this region of the Digital World."

"He usually leaves us commoners alone, merely demanding a small tribute from us every month or so…" another Gotsumon said. "But _if_ anyone tries to oppose him, or withhold information from him…" He didn't finish that sentence, but they all got the idea.

"And this… Barbamon… Is he powerful?" Kiyoshi asked. All the Digimon looked at him with disbelief, even Lunamon and Ryudamon.

"_Powerful_? He's one of the Seven Demon Lords, among the most feared Digimon in the entire Digital World!" Ryudamon said. "_Nobody_ who has stood up to him has ever lived to tell the tale!"

"And he wants us for something? And Buraimon is his servant?" Kouko asked. "…Guys. Maybe we should leave now. And I don't just mean this village, but that we should go back to the cave, get Chie-san, and then get as far away from here as we can."

"I agree," Kiyoshi said. "If this Barbamon is really that dangerous, and he knows we're here, then we really shouldn't stay here any longer."

"No objections here either," Mamoru said. "Lunamon, can you carry us all back to the cave?"

"Of course!" Lunamon said, and turned to Kouko, who pulled out her Digivice.

"Lunamon, evolve!" she said, and Lunamon transformed once again into her bigger form, which was apparently called Lekismon.

"Anyway, thank you for everything, Gotsumon!" Kouko said to the villagers as she climbed on to Lekismon's back. Lekismon then grabbed Mamoru and Kiyoshi and held them up against her chest.

"Good luck!" the Gotsumon said and waved their hands.

* * *

"Fair warning," Kouko said. "This is quite possibly the most uncomfortable way of travelling ever."

Lekismon then quickly sprinted off, and two incredibly uncomfortable minutes later, they were back outside the desert. Since she still had strength to spare though, she decided to keep going and just carry them all the way back to the cave, which none of her passengers were even the slightest bit grateful for.

"Man, I thought it seemed like an uncomfortable way to travel, but that was even worse than I thought…" Mamoru complained.

"Yeah…" Kiyoshi said.

"Sorry," Lunamon said with her head down, again.

"Again, it's not your fault. We just aren't quite cut out to handle the speed," Kouko said.

They walked back into the cave, only to find that it was empty.

"Where is she?!" Kiyoshi exclaimed. "You don't think Buraimon already found her, do you?!"

"Buraimon?" a voice said from behind their backs. They turned, and saw Chie walking towards them, with Gomamon walking alongside her.


	5. Trust

Author's Note: This chapter turned out to be a lot harder to write than the last ones... I mean, I knew perfectly well how I wanted the chapter to _end_, but I was a lot less certain about how I was going to actually get there, so I had to do a lot of rewriting before I was happy with the first half of it... And then once I reached the bit that I actually had planned out, suddenly I found myself being pretty much unable to _stop_ writing again, and by the time I'd finished it this had become by far the longest chapter yet. Go figure.

* * *

**CHAPTER 5**

_Trust_

They explained the situation to Chie, who seemed surprisingly unfazed by the news that one of the most powerful beings in the world wanted to find her and possibly kill her.

"I've spend a year in this place hiding from all sorts of monsters who presumably wanted to eat me already," she said. "Just hearing that some other monster who's presumably way stronger than the other monsters I've been trying to avoid, doesn't really change anything."

"Well, I suppose…" Mamoru said. "That aside, what's _he_ doing here anyway?!" he continued, while glaring at Gomamon.

"I just wanted to apologize for what happened…" Gomamon said. "Look, I _know_ I screwed up really badly back there, but I've learned from my mistake! I won't try to do anything that stupid again, so will you please give me another chance?!"

Mamoru thought about it for a while.

"Look, you just finished explaining how you're on the Most Wanted-list of the most feared Digimon on this whole continent! Do you really think I'd even _want_ to stick with you guys anymore if all I wanted was power?!" Gomamon argued.

"Well… I suppose we can give you another chance. But let's get one thing straight; I still don't trust you!" Mamoru said.

Chie and Gomamon looked at each other. "Well… It's a start," he said.

"At this point, I don't think it could really have gone any better," she pointed out.

"So that's why you wanted to stay behind?" Kiyoshi said. "You wanted to offer him a second chance? Why?"

"Well for one, I wasn't so distracted by anger that I didn't notice how sad he was when you guys drove him off," she said flatly. "Anyway, didn't you say something about us needing to get away from here as quickly as possible?"

"Right. So, anyone got any ideas where we should go?" Kiyoshi asked.

"Don't ask us, you're the guy who knows this place the best, remember?" Kouko said.

"Well, we could try crossing the ocean…" Gomamon suggested.

"Are you kidding? For one thing, we don't have anything to cross the ocean _with_, and even if we did, we'd pretty much be leaving ourselves completely defenseless for as long as we're out there… And we have no idea how long it would take us to hit land," Kiyoshi said.

"Oh, right…" Gomamon sounded dejected.

"Well, the Gotsumon said we were heading north, right? In that case, wouldn't the smartest thing to do, be to travel south?" Mamoru said.

"I suppose so," Kouko said.

"Makes sense to me," Kiyoshi said. "We should leave quickly, though I don't think there's much to be gained from setting off tonight, what with all of us still being worn out from the trip to the desert and all."

They all agreed, and went inside the cave to have something to eat and then get some sleep.

The next day, they set off at the break of dawn. Even though they saw no real reason to assume that Barbamon's men would come back any time soon after the Gotsumon had thrown off their trail, they still thought they'd better go as early as possible, just in case.

"Now I can't help but wonder…" Mamoru said. "Even _if_ we manage to find a way back to our world, where will we end up?"

"Yeah… So far we've stayed close to the place we entered this world from, but now, we might just find ourselves in the middle of the wilderness, hundreds of miles away from home and just as lost as we are now…" Kouko said.

"Yeah, well moping about it isn't going to help!" Kiyoshi said, sounding annoyed. "We can't stay here anymore, and that's that!"

"Thanks for being so tactful…" Chie muttered in an equally annoyed tone.

"Well, like it or not, staying here will only end up getting us killed! At least this way we _might_ have a chance of getting back home in one piece!" he replied.

"…You know Kiyoshi, Chie-san has a point," Mamoru said. "Even if what you're saying _does_ make sense, there's no reason to be a jerk about it."

"And I can't help but notice how you emphasized that 'might'-part," Kouko said. "Even if the chances of us getting back home _are_ pretty slim, I don't think actually dwelling on that will do us any good."

"…And now you just said it even more clearly…" Mamoru muttered.

Gomamon and Lunamon, who were walking along at the back of the group, looked at each other.

"They're all being awfully negative about this, huh?" Gomamon said.

"I know… We should do something to cheer them up!" Lunamon said.

"Well, you'd probably have to do that on your own," Gomamon muttered. "When last I checked, none of them really liked me all that much."

"Right…" Lunamon said and started thinking. After a few seconds, she ran up to Kouko and said "So Kouko… Think you can tell me something else about your world?"

Kouko looked at her skeptically. "…You know, I might miss my home and all, but I don't miss it so much that I feel like holding another Q&A-session about the functions of a toaster," she replied flatly.

"Oh…" Lunamon said. "I just thought you could use something to keep your mind off this whole thing…"

Gomamon walked up beside her and said"…So you try to cheer her up and get her mind off the fact that she's stranded in another world… by asking her to talk about her own world, which of course means that she'd _have_ to think about it. No offense, but I don't think that's really the best way to go about it…"

"Yeah, you may have missed the mark just a little," Kouko said and chuckled a little.

Lunamon's head dropped again. Kouko then hastily added "Oh, but it's not like I don't appreciate you trying! Don't worry about it, I'm not mad at you…" She then patted Lunamon on the head, before something struck her.

"Oh my god. Did I just _agree_ with Gomamon?!"

"See? He's not that bad," Chie commented.

Everyone started laughing, except Gomamon who felt mildly offended.

"Anyway, Kiyoshi's right. Focusing on the negative side of things isn't getting us anywhere," Kouko said.

"Yeah, and it could have been a lot worse," Mamoru said. "At least the weather's nice."

"And at least we're not alone," Chie said.

"And for all we know, a portal home could open right in front of us any second now!" Kouko said.

"…Well, now you might be getting a bit _too_ optimistic," Chie said.

"Huh… Looks like you _did_ manage to cheer them up after all," Gomamon said to Lunamon.

"Oh, you shouldn't give me _all_ the credit," Lunamon said.

They kept walking, trying to keep themselves under the cover of the trees in case Barbamon had more scouts in the sky, and were careful to stop whenever they heard any strange noises, so that they could figure out where they came from and stay away from whatever was making them. To their great relief, Gomamon did indeed seem to have learned his lesson from earlier, and took just as much care to avoid getting into trouble as the rest of them.

Eventually, they noticed that the forest was clearing up. As they were walking along the edge of the forest, where they could see the ocean just next to them, they saw that the sky had gotten pretty dark.

"Hmm, I'd hoped we could find another refuge before the night, but I suppose that was too much to ask for," Kiyoshi said. "Let's just stop here for the day. Since we're sleeping outside though, someone will have to stand guard during the night."

"I can do that. Just keep my eyes open for any danger, and wake you guys up if there is something, right?" Mamoru said.

"Alright, then you'll take the first shift. Wake me up halfway through the night and I'll relieve you," Kiyoshi said.

"Halfway through the night… That's a bit unspecific, isn't it?" Mamoru said. "Doesn't anybody have a watch or something?"

"Obviously not, or I'd have told you to wake me at 4 AM or something," Kiyoshi said. "So let's just say… when the moon's at the top of the sky or something."

"Works for me," Mamoru said.

"Anyway, what are we gonna do for food? It's getting a little too dark to go out and search for some…" Kouko said.

"I'll get some!" Gomamon exclaimed eagerly and started running towards the ocean.

"Like what?" Mamoru asked.

"Well, fish, obviously!" Gomamon said.

"…Wait what? Weren't you the one who tried to kill us for fishing in your pond earlier?" Kiyoshi asked.

"Well, that was just because you were fishing in _my_ pond and taking _my_ food, duh!" Gomamon said. "…That, and the fact that you just jabbed a hook through my lips. I was a bit annoyed at the time."

He ran out to the coast, and exclaimed "_Marching Fishes!_", causing another school of fish to emerge from the water.

"There you are," he said with a smile on his face.

Mamoru and the others looked at him with a confused look.

"Say… Do you think that's how he _usually_ gets food?" Kouko asked.

"I don't know, but suddenly I feel extremely grateful to Chie-san for convincing him to come back," Mamoru said.

They walked over and picked up as many of the fish as they could carry.

"So, should we try to get a fire going?" Mamoru asked.

"Are you kidding? We've spent the entire day doing everything we can to avoid being spotted, and now you want to light a _fire_?" Kiyoshi said with an annoyed look.

"Well, I just don't feel like eating a bunch of raw fish…" Mamoru said.

"Seriously? You know, you might not have been here for much longer than a week so far, but I would have thought you'd at least gotten used to the idea of not being so picky about what to eat…" Chie said.

"I don't know, though… Aren't you afraid that this might be kind of… unhealthy?" Mamoru said.

"Well, tough luck, because it's all we have," Kiyoshi said, still annoyed. "But if you'd rather go hungry, then that's fine by me."

It didn't take him long to decide that risking getting sick was still better than starving to death, and he ended up eating with the rest of them after all.

Later that night, he was standing guard while the others were asleep. Or, most of them anyway.

"One thing I don't get though…" Mamoru said to Gomamon. "Chie-san was so dead-set on taking you back… And yet I don't think she's said a single word to you since we started walking…"

"She said she didn't really want a partner, and how she felt that you and I 'deserved' each other or something…" Gomamon said.

"…I'm really not quite sure how I should take that," Mamoru said. "And what, she doesn't _want_ one? Seriously? She's been stuck here, all alone, for far longer than any of us and she just decides that 'Nah, I'm better off on my own'? Sounds pretty phoney to me."

"Agreed," Gomamon said. "I told her how you probably wouldn't even want me back anyway, but she convinced me to give it a try."

"Well to be fair, you do seem a lot less likely to lead us all to our deaths this time around," Mamoru said.

"…I'm not sure if I should take that as an insult or a compliment…" Gomamon replied.

A few minutes passed without either of them saying anything, before Mamoru spoke up again.

"So what _do_ you think we were doing wrong, anyway?"

"What?"

"Well, Kiyoshi and Kouko both managed to get their Digivices in the heat of battle, and we didn't… What do you think was missing?"

Gomamon looked at him strangely. "What, so now _you_ want to make me evolve so we can fight our own battles?"

"Well, I'm just curious…" Mamoru said.

"Whatever it is, I'm not gonna try and force it to happen again. I learned my lesson from our last near-death experience," Gomamon said.

"Good call," Mamoru said.

The night went on with nothing happening, and soon it was time for Kiyoshi to take over as the guard. They slept through the rest of the night, and woke up the next morning still feeling quite sleepy.

"Alright then, everyone ready to get going?" Kiyoshi said.

Kouko, Lunamon and Chie all nodded, whereas Mamoru and Gomamon just muttered "Sure…" while struggling to even keep their eyes open.

"Alright you two, I know you're still sleepy and all, but we really have to get going. The longer we stay in one place…" Kiyoshi began.

"…The higher the risk of one of Barbamon's spies coming here and spotting us, we know," Mamoru finished for him.

And so they walked off, with Kiyoshi leading the group, Chie and Kouko following him, and Mamoru and Gomamon both barely keeping up at the back of the group.

"Hey Mamoru… Think you can carry me?" Gomamon mumbled.

"You're kidding, right? You know I got just as little sleep as you did, don't you?" Mamoru replied.

"…Worth a try," Gomamon said. "Anyway, I can't help but notice how that Kiyoshi-fellow and Ryudamon both seemed wide awake back when they took over for us…"

"They're probably just used to getting less sleep," Mamoru said.

They walked on along the edge of the forest, and eventually they reached a wide river flowing into the ocean to their left. It was both too wide and too deep to walk or swim across, and a strong current was flowing through it. They tried walking up along it for a while, but it seemed to stretch on for miles.

"Hmmm… What should we do to get across?" Kiyoshi asked.

"I could use my Marching Fishes-attack to summon a fleet of fish to carry us over!" Gomamon said.

"…Thanks, but I'd rather not do that unless we have to," Kiyoshi said.

"How about I evolve and use my Tear Arrows to freeze the water and make a bridge?" Lunamon suggested.

"That could work," Kiyoshi said. "Kouko-san, do you think you can handle that?"

"Of course," Kouko said and held up her Digivice.

Lunamon evolved and threw one of her arrows at the edge of the lake. It froze a small portion of the water, creating a circular ice-chunk about two meters in diameter. She then stepped on top of it to make sure it wouldn't break as soon as any of the others stepped on it.

"Alright, it's safe," she said, and pulled out several more arrows and threw them in front of her one after another to form a bridge. Little more than a minute later, she had reached the other end of the lake, and Kouko cancelled the evolution.

"Now let's just hope this thing holds up for long enough that we can get across…" Mamoru said as he stepped on to the bridge.

"If it doesn't, then we can try Gomamon's idea," Kiyoshi said.

The bridge was rather slippery, and they had to be careful to keep their balance as they walked across. It held them well at first, but it didn't take many minutes before they noticed that it was getting narrower and narrower, and as they were about halfway across, they could hear it start to crack underneath their feet.

"…Well, I suppose making an ice bridge across a rapidly flowing river in this heat wasn't the best idea… Kouko-san, can you evolve Lunamon again and make her strengthen the bridge?" Kiyoshi said.

"Alright," Kouko said, but before she even got a chance, the ice under their feet gave way and they fell into the water. Kouko lost her Digivice, and Lunamon almost instinctively jumped in after them, only to quickly get pulled off by the current herself.

"Lunamon!" Kouko yelled as she tried to swim over to her friend.

Mamoru, who was having trouble keeping his head above the water, shouted "Gomamon! Now would… be a good time… to use that… technique of yours!"

"_Marching Fishes!_" Gomamon yelled, and summoned an enormous fleet of fish that picked them all up. He tried to carry them to the other side, but moving across the lake with the current dragging them down it proved to be a harder task than he'd imagined. Before he could get them across, they'd already been carried out into the open sea.

"Well… At least now it should be easier to get to the other side," Chie said, as Gomamon's fish-raft started swimming slowly towards the coast again. But before they could get there, they heard a loud splashing sound behind them, and turned to see an enormous sea-serpent glaring at them.

Everybody panicked except for Kiyoshi, who remained calm and said "Alright Ryudamon, so what are we dealing with this time?"

"Seadramon. It's an adult-level aquatic Digimon. It's not very intelligent, but its underwater speed is no joke, and we're clearly at a huge disadvantage here," Ryudamon said, equally calm.

"Alright… Kouko-san, we're gonna have to back each other up here!" Kiyoshi said.

"I'd love to, but I just lost my Digivice in the lake!" Kouko said frantically.

"Damn it… Gomamon, do you think you can find it?" Kiyoshi asked.

"I can try…" Gomamon said, as he jumped into the water. "Fish, do whatever you can to keep my friends away from that Seadramon!" he commanded before diving and swimming back towards the lake in order to search for Kouko's Digivice at the bottom.

Kiyoshi was holding on tight to his own Digivice, but didn't give the call for Ryudamon to evolve, because he wasn't sure if the fish-raft could even handle the weight of his evolved form, plus he was afraid that the evolution might not even last long enough for Gomamon to find Kouko's Digivice.

Seadramon launched a beam of cold air from its mouth, and Gomamon's fish-raft swam as fast as they could to avoid it. As the beam hit the water, it created another large flake of ice far bigger than the ones Lekismon had formed earlier.

"That's it!" Kiyoshi said. "Fish, take us back towards that ice-flake!"

But the fish didn't do as he said, and kept frantically swimming around to avoid Seadramon's ice-beams. As they got close to one of them however, Kiyoshi grabbed on to Ryudamon and jumped into the water himself, trying to swim over towards the flake.

Seadramon noticed this, and quickly moved its tail towards him and wrapped it around him. Ryudamon responded in turn by spitting one of his blades at the serpent's tail, causing it to lose its grip again. The two of them fell into the water again, and Kiyoshi grabbed on to the ice-flake and barely managed to climb on top of it before Seadramon lashed its tail down upon it and broke it in two.

Meanwhile, Gomamon was trying his best to swim up the river, but the current was strong and kept pushing him back, so he was moving slowly. Then he caught a glimpse of something shiny lying between two rocks on the bottom, and swam as fast as he could to reach it. When he got closer, he could see that it was Kouko's Digivice. He kept moving forward and made it over to it and caught it with his mouth before turning around and swimming back towards the others, pushed forward by the current.

When he made it back, he saw Kiyoshi and Ryudamon standing on top of a large flake of ice, with Seadramon lashing its tail down and breaking it in two, separating the two of them and making the flakes shake heavily in the waves, almost throwing them back into the water.

He swam up to the fish-raft which Kouko, Lunamon, Mamoru and Chie were standing on, and leapt back on to it himself.

"You're back!" Kouko said, and saw the Digivice in his mouth. He threw it over to her, and she said "Thanks! Now I just hope this thing still works… Lunamon, evolve!"

The Digivice lit up, and Lunamon evolved to Lekismon a second time. Ryudamon and Kiyoshi were still holding on for their lives on top of the broken ice-flake they'd leapt on to, and Lekismon immediately threw another arrow at the water between them to join them back together before leaping over to join them.

"Lekismon!" Kiyoshi exclaimed with relief. "Alright, _now_ let's do this! Ryudamon, evolve!"

Ryudamon transformed into his bigger form, and Lekismon immediately threw out even more arrows at the waters surrounding them, freezing it so that he'd have enough solid ground to stand on.

"Alright, here's the plan. Lekismon, you use your Tear Arrows to stop Seadramon's movements and wear him down, and then Ryudamon, you fire one of your blades through its head to finish it off!"

"Roger that!" Lekismon and Ryudamon both said, and Lekismon pulled out several more arrows and threw them towards Seadramon. Seadramon saw the arrows coming though, and immediately submerged itself before reappearing on the other side of the ice and swung its tail at them, only narrowly missing Kiyoshi and Ryudamon, and breaking the ice apart again.

"It's no use…" Gomamon said. "This is Seadramon's natural element, there's no way they can win!"

"Gomamon, you're an aquatic Digimon too, right?! I'm sure if you evolved, you could beat that thing!" Kouko said.

"Yeah, but how?! Neither of us know how to do that!" Mamoru said.

"So you do _want_ it to happen then?!" Chie asked.

"Well of course I want to! If we can't help out here, we might all die!" Mamoru said.

At the same time, Seadramon was still swinging down his tail, trying to force Ryudamon, Lekismon and Kiyoshi into the water, and Lekismon was still throwing her arrows to repair their only footing. But then, Seadramon fired another ice-beam at Ryudamon and Kiyoshi, who narrowly managed to jump out of the way before Seadramon then swung its tail down once more right at the spot they were jumping towards, and hit Ryudamon so hard that he was immediately knocked unconscious. Kiyoshi still barely avoided getting hit. Ryudamon's evolution was cancelled out, and the ice beneath him cracked and he fell into the water.

"_Ryudamon!_" he screamed and leapt into the sea himself to catch his friend.

Seadramon then turned to Mamoru, Kouko and the others, and fired another ice-beam at them. They all leapt off Gomamon's fish-raft, which was frozen solid by the blast and then smashed by Seadramon's tail. Seadramon then dove underwater again, and swam straight towards Mamoru with its teeth bared, but Gomamon got in between them and made a desperate attempt at holding back Seadramon with another fish-school attack, which did little more than knock Seadramon back a few meters before it resumed its attack towards them. Gomamon then summoned up all his strength and pushed Mamoru out of the way, but he couldn't quite get out of the way of Seadramon's charge himself, and was thrown into the air, the impact having knocked him half unconscious.

"_No!_" Mamoru screamed, and caught Gomamon in his arms. "Gomamon, are you alright?!" he said, and as Gomamon opened his eyes and looked at him, suddenly there was a bright flash of light between them, and they both understood what it meant.

Still holding on to Gomamon with his left arm, Mamoru grabbed hold of his Digivice with the left hand, and said "We did it… We actually did it!" and looked down at his new partner. "Gomamon, do you think you've got enough strength in you for one more fight?"

"You… got it!" Gomamon said with a strained voice, as Mamoru let go of Gomamon and raised his Digivice skyward.

"Gomamon, evolve!" he shouted, as a blinding light engulfed Gomamon, and he started to grow. Seadramon attempted to bite him while he was evolving, but as soon as it tried, it received a strong shock and was thrown back.

The light faded, and Gomamon had transformed into an enormous fuzzy white walrus with a black horn on his forehead. All signs of damage he'd received from Seadramon earlier were gone. Mamoru, Kiyoshi, Kouko, Chie and Lekismon all looked on in amazement.

Gomamon charged towards Seadramon with remarkable speed, and Seadramon attempted to swim out of the way but Gomamon was able to grab on to its tail with his teeth, and threw the serpent skyward with impressive strength.

"_Harpoon Vulcan!_" he shouted, as the horn on his forehead split open and revealed a small torpedo hidden underneath, which flew off towards Seadramon and exploded against its underside. Seadramon crashed into the water again, and raised his head and glared at Gomamon before opening its mouth and firing another ice-beam.

Gomamon made no effort to dodge the ice-beam, and appeared completely unaffected by it. He simply shook the ice off, and then his horn grew out again.

"_Harpoon Vulcan!_" he shouted a second time and fired another torpedo, hitting Seadramon straight in the head and finishing it off once and for all. As Seadramon's lifeless body sunk into the water, Gomamon swam over to Mamoru and the others and let them ride him back to the shore.

A few hours later, they were all sitting on the beach, eating some mushrooms and berries that Chie had found in the forest. Ryudamon had woken up again, and Mamoru and Gomamon had just finished recounting what had happened to him.

"And I think I finally understand what we did wrong the first time around, too," Mamoru said.

"Really? What?" Gomamon asked.

"Neither of us actually trusted each other. Sure, Kiyoshi and Kouko both managed to make their Digivices appear in the heat of battle, but simply wanting to fight and defeat an enemy wasn't enough. Their Digivices only appeared because they both had developed a mutual trust with their partners, and actually wanted to protect them," Mamoru said. "And it was the same with us too. The first time around, I only cared about helping Kouko and Lunamon…"

"…And I only cared about becoming strong…" Gomamon continued.

"Exactly. But this time, the both of us honestly wanted to protect each other as well as our friends, and so it finally worked."

"…That is the cheesiest law of nature I have ever heard about," Kouko commented.

"Agreed," Mamoru said and chuckled. "Well, in any case, I suppose I'm stuck with this guy as my partner now, as annoying as that may be."

"Hey!" Gomamon exclaimed, sounding offended.

"Just kidding," Mamoru assured him.


End file.
